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Squash bread

This morning after my spinning class I stopped by the local farmers market. While I was there I picked up some beautiful dark green zucchinis and immediately thought of the wonderful spicy taste of fresh zucchini bread. This recipe has been in my family for as long as I can remember - a family friend shared it with my mother ages ago. Hope you enjoy!

Zucchini Quick BreadThis Recipe will make two good sized loaves. I have often doubled the recipe to make four and find that the bread freezes well.

Optional - 1 Cup Chopped Nuts* Do not peel! The color of the bread will vary depending on the color of the zucchini. The darker the zucchini, the darker the color of the bread. Personally, I prefer a darker loaf.

1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until frothy.2. Add the sugar, vegetable oil and vanilla. Beat the mixture until think and lemon colored. 3. Stir in the fresh zucchini.

4. Sift together and add the flour, spices, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Generally, I tend to ignore the spice measurements and just dump them straight in. I love a strong spice flavor. When I make this bread, the dry ingredient mixture tends to be a light brown and very fragrant. 5. Add the sifted dry ingredients in two portions. Fold in the chopped nuts if desired. 6. Pour mixture into 2 oiled and floured loaf pans and bake for about one hour or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes.7. Invert the pans onto a cooling rack and allow the loaves to gradually fall as they cool completely.

This is my Hubbard Sunflower Sourdough Boule it is an adaptation of Nancy Silverton's Pumpkin Bread in Bread from LaBrea Bakery.

The taste is wonderful. It has a bit of Cumin in it and raw sunflower seeds of course -and I used my last Hubbard taken up from the root cellar from last summer -under the right conditions those beauties last forever!

I am extremely happy with the shape (been working hard on that) and I think that my slashing is getting better (thanks Sourdoug-guy!). I used the LaCloche top on a baking stone for the first 20 minutes for this one - and then another 15 without, crust is great! That technique is really working for me. (I am sorry I foget who explained that one to me but you know who you are - thank you!)

Any suggestions on why the Crumb tuned out this this? This is maybe about the 5th or 6th sourdough I've baked from my 3 month old starter. I really love the taste, and at least in the kinds of breads I have been baking so far, the more rustic, country sourdough breads - I like a bit of a heavier crumb, and moist. I haven't got up the nerve to try Ciabatta, bagette, etc yet - so we will see what happens when I go there. BUT - for this beautiful delicious bread, I don't know why the crumb did this? About half way through it started to show some of these odd shaped large holes here and there.

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